“Invincible Swordsman” Theatrical Poster

Director: Luo Yi Wei
Cast: Kitty Zhang Yuqi, Tim Huang Xiyan, Xuan Lu, Terence Yin, Sammo Hung, Yun Qianqian
Running Time: 118 min.

By Paul Bramhall

When Brigitte Lin was cast as the character Invincible Asia in 1992’s Swordsman 2, few could have predicted the role would become so iconic, leading Lin to spend the last 3 years of her acting career as a mainstay of the new wave wuxia genre. In just a few short years she appeared in more than 10 new wave wuxia’s, and her role in each is probably reason enough why, even with the technological advancements in the 30 years since, few directors have been bold (or dumb, depending on your perspective) enough to try and remake any of them. The last to try was Jacob Cheung, who in 2014 helmed The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom, a re-make of Ronny Yu’s 1993 classic The Bride with White Hair, which was mostly met with negative reviews.

Now in 2025, for his sophomore feature director Luo Yi Wei decided to take a crack at remaking the very movie that made Lin such an iconic presence in the new wave wuxia genre, with Invincible Swordsman tackling the same story as Swordsman 2. Debuting in 2022 with Swords Drawn, Yi Wei admittedly has a convenient out of any potential comparisons, thanks to the fact the source material is one of wuxia writer Jin Yong’s novels, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. While it’s almost impossible to count the number of time Yong’s The Condor Heroes has been adapted for the screen, comparatively The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is one of his lesser adapted stories. Apart from the Tsui Hark produced trilogy of the early 1990’s, there’s been a couple of TV adaptations in the 2000’s and that’s it, so the source materials relative scarcity of appearing onscreen make the comparisons to its last big screen adaptation all the more inevitable.

While The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom saw Fan Bingbing step into the role that Brigitte Lin originally played, in Invincible Swordsman the honours go to Kitty Zhang (The Mermaid, Legend of the Demon Cat) who’s tasked with stepping into the shoes (or should that be billowing silk?) of Invincible Asia. In the role of Lunghu Chong (played by Jet Li in Swordsman 2) is Tim Huang (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force), whose biggest problem is his friendship with Xuan Lu (Midnight Hair, Battle: The Insidious). She plays the daughter of a power-hungry clan leader played by Hong Kong mainstay Terence Yin (New Police Story, Special ID), so naturally Huang’s own clan doesn’t approve of their budding relationship, ultimately leading to him bring expelled.

Lucky for him, he’s taken under the wing of a martial arts master who’s been living in seclusion played by Sammo Hung (God of War, The Bodyguard), who trains him up on such awesomely named techniques like the Sword Nourishing stance. While Huang lives in isolation on the (equally awesomely named) Cliff of Contemplation, Zhang defeats Yin and becomes the leader of the Sun Moon Cult, imprisoning him by blocking his vital points, and vowing to take over the martial arts world. When Huang gets wind that his former clan is also in danger from her plans for world dominance, he decides to return to the world of jiang hu, using his new skills to go into battle with members of the cult. It’s in the midst of a fight that he mistakenly believes he saves Zhang, not realising who she is, beginning a doomed love story as the truth is bound to eventually reveal itself.

It goes without saying that Invincible Swordsman is a much more straightforward affair than its last iteration on the big screen. The whole element of how Invincible Asia is actually a man, who after making himself a eunuch has transitioned into a woman, is here not given a mention (despite being more culturally relevant today than it was in the early 90’s!). The only slight reference it gets is in a throwaway scene where Zhang admires the female servants she’s surrounded by, implying a feeling of physical attraction, although in a stark contradiction she then falls for Huang minutes later. There’s also understandably a lack of the political subtext that Tsui Hark is known for, but considering China’s current cinematic climate that’s to be expected. Instead we’re left with a relatively pedestrian re-telling of the source material, one that gets by on the goodwill of seeing the likes of Sammo Hung back in a wuxia production again.

More an extended special appearance than a supporting role, Hung’s main duty is to pass on his martial arts skills to Huang in a CGI rendered clifftop setting, and it’s always a pleasure to see him onscreen. The last time he was in a wuxia you have to go back to 2010’s 14 Blades, but his role here as a white bearded martial arts master is more likely to recall his role in Wong Jing’s 1993 slice of wuxia madness Kung Fu Cult Master (speaking of which, it’s Wong Jing who’s on script and producer duty for Invincible Swordsman). Hung’s always been able to evoke a sense of authority when his performances call for it, something we saw last in the previous year’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, and it’s a joy to see the elder statesman of kung-fu cinema supplant that same authority from a contemporary setting into a wuxia one.

Others fare less well. As the main character Huang is decidedly one note, appearing in every scene like he’s just been told to “smoulder for the camera”, and little else. Sure any wuxia flick requires a degree of posing in a variety of heroic martial arts stances, but when the entire performance feels like posing, it becomes a problem. Similarly Zhang struggles to make the role of Invincible Asia her own, too often feeling like she watched Swordsman 2 on repeat for a few weeks, then attempted to emulate Brigitte Lin’s performance as best she can. Inevitably, the scenes they share together which are intended to carry the most dramatic weight land with a resounding thud, devoid of any chemistry.

Regardless of performance quality though, the one aspect of Invincible Swordsman that nobody can escape from is a painfully pretentious script. Almost as if ChatGPT had been asked to create a script consisting entirely of fortune cookie pondering, lines like “Gain and loss are but two sides of the same coin” and “How long is an inch of justice? How long is an inch of longing?” are commonplace. It kind of feels like there was an unspoken rule that if a character was going to speak, they had to come out with something deeply profound, but the result is one that leads to plenty of eyerolling fairly early on. If anything, it came as a relief when there was a scene involving one of the clans throwing a celebration, and the song they decided to belt out consisted purely of a bunch of men chanting “raa raa raa!” on repeat.

That leaves the action, which sees Wu Yue (Paradox, The Brink) stepping into an action director role for the first time since 2016’s The Adventures of Wei Bao, and he does a serviceable job. Invincible Asia’s threaded needles benefit best from the CGI enhancements, with one particular scene involving a character getting one of them straight through his eyeball, which is then used to pull him forward. The appearance of a trio of villains – named Greed, Anger, and Ignorance – also feels like a call back to the crazed wuxia’s of yesteryear, with the use of a lute and oversized butchers knives providing both variety and energy to the action beats. There’s nothing really on display that hasn’t been seen before though, and there’s a distinct feeling we’re watching the go-to action beats from the ‘Wuxia Wirework for Non-Martial Artists’ playbook, meaning there’s no standout moments to separate Invincible Swordsman from its contemporaries.

As it stands, for his sophomore feature director Luo Yi Wei shows just how far the Chinese web movie industry has come in the last 15 years, as Invincible Swordsman received a theatrical release despite being funded by the likes of iQIYI and Tencent, production companies that once exclusively made movies for streaming. Indeed the budget may be higher, the CGI locations now mixed with actual location shooting, and the runtime much longer, but is Invincible Swordsman likely to stay in the memory any longer than the average 75-minute web movie wuxia? Honestly, probably not.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10

The post Invincible Swordsman (2025) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Chasing the Dragon” Theatrical Poster

Director: Wong Jing
Co-director: Jason Kwan
Cast: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Kent Cheng, Phillip Keung, Wilfred Lau, Yu Kang, Kent Tong, Michelle Hu, Xu Dong-Dong, Felix Wong, Bryan Larkin, Philip Ng, Jonathan Lee, Lawrence Chou, Wang Qian-Yu, Kenneth Tsang, Chan Wai-Man, Terence Yin Chi Wai, Chun Wong
Running Time: 112 min.

By Martin Sandison

By the age of 14 my appetite for martial arts movies was voracious, so every visit to the local video shop resulted in a new find. One day I came across the movie In the Line of Duty (aka In the Line of Duty 4: Key Witness). This was my first exposure to the legend that is Donnie Yen. From this point on, I was hooked.

Yen’s raw physical ability in many different styles of martial arts, coupled with his head for choreography, resulted in some of the all time classics. Some of my favourites are the Ip Man Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in China 2, Iron Monkey, Tiger Cage 2, SPL and Flashpoint. Now with the success of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the man can do as he pleases, and many fans were pleased to see his return to Hong Kong cinema with a new interpretation of the legendary Hong Kong gangster Crippled Ho in Chasing the Dragon. So, does the movie live up to its first class billing? The answer is a mixed bag.

The movie begins with the struggling Crippled Ho and his friends arriving in Hong Kong in the early 60’s from Mainland China. When a mass brawl breaks out between gangs, Ho proves his fighting skills and is taken under the wing of Lee Rock (Andy Lau, The Great Wall), a corrupt policeman. Soon, Ho rises through the ranks to become a powerful drug overlord, making many enemies, not least a British policeman called Hunter (Bryan Larkin, Outpost 3). This sets in motion a plot full of twists, turns, action and melodrama.

I’ve followed director Wong Jing’s career for a long time, and obviously he is known for low brow cinema. However, despite absolute misfires like From Vegas to Macau 3, recently he has proved his worth as a director with The Last Tycoon – to my mind this is the best-directed film from Wong I have ever seen. In that vein, the first half of Chasing the Dragon is superbly immersive, with a grimy, but stylish aesthetic. One long take shot in a reconstruction of the Kowloon Walled City – set to the classic funk song The Ghetto, as Ho walks around – is the highlight of the movie. Ho’s rise is depicted with a lot of narrative and visual panache, and Yen brings a swaggering bravado, yet humanistic, quality to the role.

Andy Lau reprises his role as Lee Rock (he starred in a pair of movies as the character in the early 90’s) and reinvents him as a suave, sophisticated, multi-layered cop. It’s a typical Lau performance that brings pathos and charisma to the role, and the scenes between him and Yen are electrifying. Kent Cheng has a cameo part as a go-between cop, looking no different from his heyday in films such as Jackie Chan’s Crime Story. Unfortunately, Bryan Larkin (despite coming from East Kilbride in Scotland, just around the corner from where I type) as Hunter, the antagonist, is only decent at best, and suffers from an underwritten character, but he succeeds in conveying the nasty side of his character well. A highlight for me was seeing the legendary Chan Wai Man (The Club) in a cameo role – I wish he was in the movie more.

A problem, come the second half of the movie, is that peripheral characters who have been given no screen time or dialogue to speak of, are killed off. These scenes are typically melodramatic and sentimental, which in the golden age was part of the charm, but now they fail to convince. A lot has changed in Hong Kong cinema since then, and the time when hundreds of movies were released per year with low budgets now translate to bigger budgets and less films being made. These aspects, now smack of bad writing, hint that there may be a lot of stuff cut out. I would hope there is a director’s or extended cut, and I could reappraise the film.

Those seeking to see Yen in martial arts action mode will be disappointed, with only a few fights taking place, which are choreographed as brawls. Of course this fits in with the subject matter and style of the film, so there should be no complaining. However, it is disappointing to see Yen take on Phillip Ng (Birth of the Dragon) in a fight that lasts less than a minute and features no martial arts. A mid-film chase/gunplay scene is the action highlight, with Lau negotiating the Kowloon Walled City with gangsters on his tail and Yen coming to his rescue. The tension, release and seamless editing proves Wong still has what it takes when it comes to fashioning a good action scene. Gunplay on the whole is handled well, despite some dodgy CGI – I just wish there was more of it. Some of the violence on display is pretty extreme, with a highlight being Yen cutting off the ear of a rival gansgter and nonchalantly chucking it away.

A lot has been made of Chasing the Dragon getting passed the Chinese censors by painting the British as the villains of the piece. Personally, being British, I didn’t find this aspect particularly stuck in my craw. My knowledge of the time and subject matter in Hong Kong isn’t great, and it’s to the film’s credit that now I want to find out more about it. Actually. I have still yet to see Poon Man Kit’s To Be Number One, the 90’s movie made about Crippled Ho which won the Hong Kong Film Award for best picture in 1992, so I can’t compare the two.

Chasing the Dragon succeeds for the most part, it’s just a shame the second half does not match up to the first.

Martin Sandison’s Rating: 7/10

The post Chasing the Dragon (2017) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

Original “Zombie Fight Club” Artwork by Kung Fu Bob

AKA: Z.F.C.
Director: Joe Chien
Cast: Andy On, Jessica Cambensy, Jack Kao Jie, Philip Ng, Michael Wong, Terence Yin, Derek Tsang Kwok Cheung, Abby Feng, Gu Bao Ming
Running Time: 95 min.

By Paul Bramhall

At the end of my review for Joe Chien’s 2012 production Zombie 108, I was so appalled at what was proudly billed as China’s first zombie movie that I wrote “if it’s Chien who’s going to be the driving force behind them, then hopefully it’ll be the last.” However, like a modern incarnation of the village idiot, somehow I found myself drawn to Chien’s 2014 follow-up, Zombie Fight Club. I can say it was the presence of Andy On that drew me in, the fact that the action was being choreographed by Philip Ng, or even just tempted by the concept of a zombie fight club. But I won’t try to justify myself, I chose to watch this movie while of sound mind, so will attempt to write this review while in a similar disposition.

Zombie Fight Club bursts out of the gates in much the same way that its predecessor did. Within the first 5 minutes we have a title sequence that lists actors with names like ‘MC Hotdog’, a vision of Taipei up in flames, a gratuitous shot of a young female’s posterior adorned in denim hot pants, and a guy having his ear chopped off. 10 minutes in and we’ve had a threesome scene, a guy having his manhood bitten off when the girl he’s receiving lip service from chooses a bad moment to become a zombie, and a group of party goers taking selfies together with the zombies. Frankly, there is more insane nonsense in these initial minutes than most movies cram into their whole runtime. But I have to confess, I found myself enjoying it.

In what I promise will be my last reference to my thoughts on Zombie 108, I had written how that movie’s opening also appeared to “basically setup for a throwback to the trashy Category III flicks of Hong Kong’s yesteryear, only in Taiwanese form.” I then went on to explain how it failed miserably. The opening of Zombie Fight Club had me hoping that Chien had learnt his lesson, and maintain the entertainingly trashy lowbrow zombie shenanigans for the duration of the run-time.

One thing that becomes evident rather quickly is that Chien must have enjoyed The Raid, as the structure of the first hour contains several identical setups from the Gareth Evans classic. Andy On is basically Rama (although to keep it simple, here On plays a character called, wait for it, Andy), with Michael Wong in the role of corrupt captain Wahyu. There’s even an almost identical shot which is framed in the van of the SWAT team, positioned as they approach the building they’re planning to infiltrate, in which On questions if what they’re doing is authorized.

Inside the building we focus on the apartment of a young couple who like to party, played by Derek Tsang and half American/half Filipino model Jessica C, who spends the entire movie either (a) wearing a pair of hot pants and a bra, or (b) wearing a pair of hot pants and a vest with no bra. This, and the fact that she cuts her hair short at some point, is the extent of her characterization. Unfortunately due to some contaminated drugs the couple and a group of friends were going to take, everyone ends up turning into zombies, a fate she only narrowly escapes thanks to taking a bathroom break when the other characters pop the pills.

Jessica C’s survival and the arrival of Andy On setup the structure for what amounts to almost non-stop blood splattered zombie mayhem. Zombie Fight Club is still B-grade stuff, but gone is the hyper-editing of the zombie scenes from Zombie 108, replaced with better zombie makeup, better CGI (although still far from perfect), and a heap more zombie extras than his previous effort could afford. The result is admittedly a lot of gory fun. Zombies get punched through the face and out the back of the head, one zombie is beaten to a pulp with a golf club, while the character giving the beating yells “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger Woods!”, and there’s even a man on a Zimmer frame vs. a zombie in the mix. None of it makes a lick of sense, none more so that when the elderly man using the Zimmer frame steps into a robot suit, not dissimilar to the one Sigourney Weaver uses in the finale of Aliens, and armed with a chainsaw creates a bloodbath of zombie decapitation.

The misogynistic streak against women has also thankfully been dialed back for Zombie Fight Club. Chien has still cast 99% of the female characters for their looks, and has them dressed as scantily as possible, but the scenes of degradation and cruelty that made Zombie 108 leave a bad taste have gone. That said, there are still some scenes that will have some viewers feeling uncomfortable. There’s the appearance of a zombie baby, and in one rather bizarre scene, which ends up becoming pivotal to the plot, a middle aged professor is visited by his daughter and her friends. When his daughter is killed by a zombie, instead of trying to rescue her surviving friends, he decides to kill them so that they can be together with his daughter in the afterlife. It may have sounded like a good twist on paper, but it’s arguably in bad taste to set a soft acoustic guitar track to a scene in which he’s murdering a group of young girls in cold blood.

Staying true to its breakneck pacing, at the one hour mark Zombie Fight Club suddenly decides it’s going to skip 1 year into the future. It’s explained onscreen that the world has been overrun by zombies, and that humans have been forced to live underground, ruled over by a mad dictator who enjoys pitting humans vs. zombies in a tournament which resembles something close to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets Gladiator. Finally, we get to see the zombie fight club that the movie was named after! Andy On changes here from being Rama in The Raid to Russell Crowe in Gladiator, as he takes it on himself to attempt to free all of the humans being held captive. It’s all very dramatic, especially one scene were he’s being seduced by one of the dictators dominatrix acquaintances, in which he yells at her, “Come on, take off my pants!”

For zombie fans, there are plenty of inventive zombie deaths and liberal use of fake (and CGI) blood throughout. From Andy On storming down a corridor bashing in the brains of zombies using his fist and feet, to a car being used to take out as many of the undead as possible, in a scene which should be used as the basis for the next installment of The Fast & The Furious franchise. For those hoping that Andy On and action choreographer Philip Ng would get a rematch of their fight in Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, thankfully we do. It comes completely without warning, and had it not been for the voiceover that plays over the start of it, which explains that the dictator has created a human vs. human tournament with the victor being granted freedom, you’d be left wondering exactly why it was happening at all.

It’s a decent fight from two performers who could be argued to be the only worthy thespians currently working in HK action cinema, and the fact that part of it takes place in an abandoned bus surrounded by hungry zombies is surprisingly effective at raising the stakes. However, if it’s purely fight action you’re looking for, Zombie Fight Club is not the place to visit. For 90 minutes of blood drenched zombie mayhem and sexy scantily clad women, you could do a lot worse, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what all the best Category III movies provide us with?

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10

The post Zombie Fight Club (2014) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Special ID” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Clarence Ford
Writer: Clarence Ford
Cast: Donnie Yen, Andy On, Sally Jing Tian, Zhang Han Yu, Yang Kun, Qi Da Ji, Nina Pau, Frankie Ng, Collin Chou, Ken Lo, Rain Lau, Terence Yin
Running Time: 99 min.

By Paul Bramhall

It seems that 2013 was the year for troubled productions to finally reach our screens. The Tony Jaa come-back vehicle Tom Yum Goong 2 finally got a release, after an arduous 2+ year production, and while it definitely didn’t take quite that long to get made, the no less troubled come-back of Donnie Yen to modern day action movies, Special ID, also arrived on the scene.

Special ID was the movie fans had been waiting for from Yen. After making Sha Po Lang and Flash Point in 2005 and 2007 respectively, Yen proceeded to spend the next 5 years making period action movies. While there was no doubt that this era generated some classics, most notably Ip Man and Wu Xia, it seemed that even Yen himself had an itch to get back to more modern day surroundings.

So, how do you top off a pair of modern day action classics which have Yen facing off against such high caliber performers like Wu Jing, Sammo Hung, Xing Yu, and Colin Chou!? Special ID had the answer – it was announced that Yen’s nemesis would be Vincent Zhao, star of The Blade and True Legend. Zhao would be a worthy foe, and the thought of him facing off against Yen was enough to have fans of Hong Kong action cinema salivating.

Shooting began, production stills started to hit the internet, and then… everything went wrong. In February 2012 Zhao left the set and never returned, leading to filming being put on hold. As details filtered through, it was revealed that Zhao believed he had signed on to a movie called The Ultimate Codebreak, which was to be directed by Mainland director Tan Bing from a script by James Yuen (Bodyguards & Assassins). However once production started, he found out it was now going under the name Special ID, was being directed by Hong Kong director Clarence Fok, and that Yen had made sizable changes to the script, reducing his characters role and importance to the story significantly.

Thankfully, Andy On was brought in to replace Zhao, and while Yen and On had faced off before in The Lost Bladesman, luckily it seemed most fans were still onboard in the hopes of a solid action movie rising from the ashes. As much as it pains me to say it, when Special ID did hit the screens, those hopes were suitably dashed. What becomes immediately clear upon watching Special ID is that Yen needs to be under a good director, who’s able to extract a convincing acting performance from him. Yen has never been strong in the acting department, so his roles in the likes of Ip Man and Wu Xia were he really nails the character in terms of his performance are a joy to watch, no doubt thanks to directors Wilson Yip and Peter Chan. Clarence Fok isn’t either of these.

Fok is a director who crafts a movie in which if a character is happy they’ll jump up and down, while excitedly running circles around the nearest person, if a character is sad they’ll sit in the corner alone while crying in intermittent squeaks, and if a character is angry they’ll yell while gesticulating wildly. Subtlety is not an option in Fok’s repertoire, and it shows in the most painful way possible. To confound things, the script is awful, resulting in Yen delivering his most teeth grindingly irritating performance in years. Special ID takes all of his most annoying traits from his other movies, and dials them up to 11 – the pretentious mouthing off, the overly cocky posing, and the complete lack of any danger that he may lose a fight.

I’m fine with blaming the script for his performance, until I remembered that it was Yen’s tampering with it to give his character more screen time which has resulted in the movie being what it is. On is in fantastic shape, and threatens to steal the show from Yen, both in acting and action, whenever he’s onscreen. It’s perhaps for this reason that he doesn’t seem to be onscreen half as much as he should be, and is also most likely the reason why Zhao left the movie in the first place.

Of course in the golden days of 1980’s Hong Kong action cinema poor plots, goofy acting performances, and jarring tonal shifts were all par for the course. We were there for the action, and as long as that delivered, we left with a smile on our face. So, while I’d like that to be the case here, for me the fights also fell flat. Yen is a pioneering force in fight choreography, and has been since he successfully infused the Hong Kong style of choreography with the grappling and locks of MMA, back in Sha Po Lang and Flash Point. Special ID shifts things too far over into the realm of MMA choreography, which unless you’re a practitioner of the sport itself, just doesn’t come across as particularly exciting onscreen.

An inordinate amount of time in each fight scene is spent on the ground grappling and rolling around, which while exiting to watch in say, a UFC match because you know it’s real, in a movie that sense of immediacy and danger just isn’t there. Yen also falls back onto one of his old bad habits, in that hardly anyone seems to be able to lay a finger on him. After scuttling about on all fours being chased by Ken Lo, he’s quickly laid to waste, a restaurant brawl has Yen against a gang of about 20 with not one of them even getting close to touching him, and even the final showdown against On eventually becomes a one-man beat down.

As a result, it’s actually waif like actress Jiang Tian who gets the most exciting fight scene, when she scuffles with Andy On in a moving car as part of a car chase which is arguably the best action sequence of the movie, and sadly also the one Yen had no hand in – it was constructed by Bruce Law, also responsible for the amazing car chase in the recently released The Raid 2.

Special ID ends with Yen dishing out some life advice via voiceover, while onscreen he jumps for joy in slow motion on the rooftop of a building. For those who have still managed to keep watching up until this point, far from wanting to jump for joy on top of a building, your feeling is more likely to be that of wanting to jump off one.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4/10

The post Special ID (2013) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Firestorm” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Alan Yuen
Writer: Alan Yuen
Cast: Andy Lau, Yao Chen, Gordon Lam, Hu Jun, Ray Lui, Kenny Wong Tak Bun, Michael Tong, Terence Yin
Running Time: 109 min.

By Sapo

Wow. Did I have high hopes for this one. Andy “Infernal Affairs” Lau in a rock ’em, sock ’em thriller. I’m there. This was one I HAD to see. This was the one that would take the recent sour taste of Blind Detective and Special ID out of my mouth. So why am I am so speechless right now. Was it that good? Not exactly. But let me say this. There is an action scene that arrives at the 30-minute mark that almost saves the entire movie. Almost.

So Andy plays an obsessed cop on the trail of some pretty suave bank robbers. But before you can say “Al Pacino in Heat,” the filmmakers sprinkle in some Infernal Affairs to spice things up. And just for the record, I still believe IA was a better flick than The Departed. Sorry. I love saying that every chance I get. Now back to business. Let me talk about that action sequence which involves an exploding building, two men fighting in the air, but before that, cop and criminal exchange blows on a gate barely supported. Believe you me; I am NOT doing the sequence any justice. It has to be seen. Then after you see it, rewind the damn thing and watch it again.

But a great scene does not make a great movie. Hell, three great scenes do not make a great movie. And that is the best way to describe Firestorm, which is a pretty cool title by the way. The final 20 minutes becomes a “Heat on crack” action bonanza. But it reaches the point where it is almost too much. There are no real characters to root for. You want to cheer for Lau but his performance makes it oh-so difficult. We have the usual mole within the bad guys with a woman dying for him to go straight. Watching Firestorm, one cannot help thinking that we seen this too many times before.

There also comes a point where a movie becomes too flashy or tries to be “too stylish.” I’m afraid Firestorm falls into this category. The action scenes are top notch but once they’re over, the movie slows down and becomes the typical “Oh no. I think we have another informant in the crew,” followed by “let’s all point our guns at each other.” But there is another cool scene in which a flock of pigeons are used as a distraction on a crowded street. I have not seen birds used so effectively since John Woo brought the doves to America in Face/Off.

Overall, you can do a lot worse than Firestorm. You can also do better. Just don’t expect anything new on the acting front and wait for those 2-3 kick ass action scenes to wake you up.

Sapo’s Rating: 6/10

The post Firestorm (2013) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Dead or Alive 3: Final” Japanese Theatrical Poster

Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Sho Aikawa, Riki Takeuchi, Richard Chen, Terence Yin, Josie Ho, Maria Chen, Hiroyoshi Komuro
Running Time: 86 Min.

By SlaXor

Well, the first thing I’d like to get out of the way is that people may wonder why someone would start with a review for the third and final installment in this excellent trilogy. The reason is that parts one and two of the Dead or Alive series have already been reviewed and praised to the heavens several times over.

In the final installment, we are set in the year 2346 in a post-apocalyptic Yokohama, Japan (really, present day Hong Kong). Mayor Wu is the homosexual ruler of the rest of civilization, hell-bent on ending it via a birth control drug he has created in order to stop the furthering of the human race and prevent it from repeating the same mistakes which lead us to the apocalyptic times we are in now. Honda, played by the always brooding DOA lead Riki Takeuchi, is a total badass cop who is Mayor Wu’s right hand man and the owner of the coolest interchangeable jacket you will ever see.

He is assigned to eliminate a group of misfit delinquents who refuse to take the birth control drug and long to escape Yokohama to create a new world. His assignment seems to be no trouble until the group of misfits are lucky enough to get a surviving battle replicant (Yes, I said a replicant!), played by our other DOA lead Sho Aikawa, on their side. The events that follow lead to the eventual showdown between the two leads in the only way real men settle anything… A KUNG-FU FIGHT!!!

First thing that really makes this movie for me is Sho Aikawa. Don’t get me wrong in that Riki Takeuchi is one of the most badass actors walking the planet and if you bottled his sweat and sold it as cologne the obvious name would be “Badass”. But, if you were to bottle Sho Aikawa’s sweat and sell it as a cologne the only name fitting for it would be “Charisma”. The guy is like a walking sponge of it waiting for a camera to be pointed in his direction and squeeze it out of him. Every time he smiles in the movie, I smile too.

The non-lead HK actors do a good job as well. If Riki is the badass and Sho is the charisma sponge then Terence Yin is the mack daddy. Josie Ho in this movie is just yummy to say the least. Her character starts out a little annoying but by the end of the movie you will have all but fallen in love with her.

Second thing is Takashi Miike’s expert use of color filters in this movie. Those being mainly yellow and the occasional green. They really help to give you that futuristic apocalyptic feeling and add a bit of style to the movie without over doing it. The homages/references are also their and always a delight to me. The first and most obvious are replicants which are, of course, from Blade Runner.

Another is bullet time from The Matrix, but not used completely like The Matrix and with Miike’s own special touch. He also pays homage to his own films with one of the misfit delinquents wearing a vest with a yellow number one on the back, which is no doubt a nod to Ichi the Killer; I’m sure with the knowledge I could write an entire review on the homages.

So does Miike close up the trilogy in a satisfying way? Absolutely, yes. As long as you don’t expect an over-the-top ending like part one or an ending with a very deep meaning like part two you will be pleased and probably thank me for warning you ahead of time. Although I love parts one and two I find myself in the minority of people who think Miike’s final and closing chapter is the best and most underrated of the trilogy.

SlaXor’s Rating: Fanboy rating: 10/10; Casual viewer rating: 6/10

The post Dead or Alive 3: Final (2002) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“The Man With the Iron Fists” Theatrical Poster

Director: RZA
Writer: RZA, Eli Roth
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, RZA, Rick Yune, David Bautista, Jamie Chung, Daniel Wu, Gordon Liu, Chen Kuan-tai, Eli Roth, Pam Grier, Jon T. Benn, Terence Yin, MC Jin (Jin Au-Yeung)
Running Time: 96 min.

By Laser Beahm

If your 11-year-old son, nephew, grandchild, or alter-ego were to write and star in their own version of a Kung-Fu film, “The Man With the Iron Fists,” would be that film.

“The Man With the Iron Fists,” is an entertaining, gory thrill-ride that takes place in the fictional Jungle Village; a place for pirates, gangs, and whores. The film throws in everything a good Kung-Fu movie should have: action-packed fight scenes, a battle of good and evil, beautiful women, and fortune. “The Man With the Iron Fists,” however, reads more as parody to Kung-Fu movies than it does homage. The plot is muddled. The characters are underdeveloped. The scenes range from embarrassingly over-acted to confusing. But, for all its faults, it still has heart and is almost endearing.

The film is former Wu-Tang Clan member, RZA’s directorial debut. While it’s chaotic and perplexing, I found myself rooting for RZA, his character the Blacksmith, and, most of all, his movie. It’s as if I am watching my own son act in his first play. Sure, it’s riddled with flaws but there’s something so charming about the enthusiasm that oozes throughout the movie as a whole that I can’t help but love it despite all of its pitfalls.

There are moments of sheer brilliance. The scenes are beautiful. Zen Yi/The X-Blade, played by Rick Yune, does a fantastic job on screen. His martial arts skills are amazing, and his acting skills bring a brooding and stunning richness to his character. The main villain Silver Lion, played by Byron Mann, is the epitome of an anti-hero. He’s coarse and money-hungry, willing to hurt and kill anyone who gets in his way of amassing a quick fortune. His performance is reminiscent of David Bowie in “Labyrinth”: cool, beautiful, and Broadway-esque.

RZA himself does a great job as the films protagonist. He is enigmatic, dark, and worthy of the love of his muse, Lady Silk (Jamie Chung). However, the film takes a very strange turn while explaining RZA’s character, the Blacksmith. Taking us down a tangled web of slavery, monks, and a shipwreck, it’s never very clear just how the Blacksmith ended up in Jungle Village at all. But that’s just par for the course. The entire movie is built on a maze of stories that never really lead up to the action at hand.

The most confusing character of all is the Brass Body. While former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista looks amazing as he shows off some of his classic professional wrestling moves in the film, there is never a discussion as to who he is, who he is working for, why he is living in Jungle Village, or just how he came to have a “Brass Body.”

Russel Crowe also appears in the film as an Aussie mercenary named Jack Knife. His introduction into the film begins with him ripping a large man in half with his knife, then delving into a night full of debauchery in the Pink Blossom whore house, led by Madame Blossom (Lucy Lui). While Knife ultimately helps the Blacksmith, again there are problems with explaining why Crowe’s character is so sociopathic yet so willing to help the Blacksmith.

If you’re up for sheer entertainment and too tired from a long week at work to care about a precise plot, then I say “The Man With the Iron Fists” is definitely worth the money. If you are a Kung-Fu purist, with a knack for character development, then this movie will definitely lead to disappointment. Go with absolutely no expectations and you will come out feeling puzzled and completely entertained, like I did.

Laser Beahm’s Rating: 5.5/10

The post Man with the Iron Fists, The (2012) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“The City of Lost Souls” International Theatrical Poster

AKA: The City of Strangers
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Teah, Michelle Reis, Patricia Manterola, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Koji Kikkawa, Ren Osugi, Akaji Maro, Anatoli Krasnov, Sebastian DeVicente, Terence Yin, Atsushi Okuno, Akira Emoto, Eugene Nomura
Running Time: 99 min.

By Joe909

Tarantino haters take note: Asian cinema is now ripping-off your whipping boy. QT is always scorned for “lifting” scenes, images, and plots from Asian action movies; now that same scorn can be directed back at the East. Of course, the QT bashers will never do this; in their hypocrisy they’ll just say that Tarantino’s getting what he deserves, or they’ll go to absurd lengths to explain away any and all similarities between these movies and his.

I present to you City of Lost Souls, aka Hazard City, which not only plot-wise is a direct lift of QT’s superior “True Romance,” but also is nearly a scene-by-scene reconstruction of the film. However, whereas the two leads in “True Romance” are likeable, down-and-outers who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the male and female leads in Hazard City (Teah as Mario, and Michelle Reis looking fantastic as Kei) are too cool for words, and willingly put themselves in dangerous positions.

Like “True Romance,” these two share a wild and crazy love, and will go to great lengths for each other. There’s also the requisite goons and gangsters whom they interact with, and the old steal-a-bag-that-turns-out-to-contain-a-shitload-of-cocaine gag. Just like Clarence and Alabama, Mario and Kei decide to sell the coke and make off to a better life. As in both films, things don’t go as planned.

The most obvious filmic theft in City of Lost Souls occurs during a standoff between a pair of yakuza thugs and a group of Chinese triads. The triad boss relates a story about how the Chinese tried to educate an “island of monkeys in the East” in the ways of the Chinese, but the “monkeys,” (aka the Japanese) just couldn’t get it. This story causes both parties to laugh crazily, before guns are drawn. A bullseye rip-off of the infamous scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in “True Romance.” It’s just not as good here, or as effective.

But beyond all the nit-picking, City of Lost Souls isn’t so bad a movie. It has a modern-day fairy tale quality (jumping safely out of helicopters without parachutes, magical tattoos), just like “True Romance” did (woops, there’s another comparison); but TR got it right by living up to that fairy tale aspect and giving us a happy ending (in the film, at least, but also bear in mind that in QT’s script, Alabama survived). City of Lost Souls goes the downer route, which is just becoming tired and outdated these days. I don’t know why so many screenwriters think it’s “shocking” and “unique” to kill off main characters in the last act. I guess they think it will make them seem like original filmmakers. It doesn’t.

That being said, there are some cool moments in this movie. The CGI cockfight is so stupid it’s great, and the many action scenes are slick and well-made. Unfortunately, they just don’t last very long, and the actor playing Mario doesn’t look comfortable holding a gun. He’s got the look and the attitude, but he just can’t carry it off. Michelle Reis, however, is pure badass, and the part where she lights some poor sap on fire is probably the film’s highlight.

There are several gunfights (one of which ends with an unexpected game of ping-pong), old-fashioned beatdowns aplenty, and a few one-liners. There’s also a cool bit of caprioera, as several Brazilians try to take out Mario, but director Miike cops out by not letting us see the fight itself. I wouldn’t consider City of Lost Souls to be a straight-up action film, though. It’s more of a post-modern “offbeat gangster” sort of flick, with a mishmash of languages and the occasional, grotesque image. This is of course required, this being a Japanese film; I think it’s written somewhere that all Japanese movies must have at least one gross-out factor. In the case of City of Lost Souls, it’s a few pieces of shit floating in a toilet as some guy gets his head dunked in. Scatology for the sake of scatology, it’s totally unnecessary.

A last word: the Hong Kong dvd release is one of those “Side A” and “Side B” deals. This means that once you get halfway through the movie, you have to flip the disc over and continue watching. It’s like regressing back to the days of laserdiscs, and it annoys the hell out of me.

Joe909’s Rating: 7.5/10

By Loonieweed

City of Lost Souls was my first venture into the crazy and fucked up mind of Takashi Miike. After hearing so much about the guy for such a long time, I was eagerly excited to check out one of his films; although, IMO, I was somewhat let down with the film, but I knew there would be a lot more to see from Miike. Granted, nothing beats the midget overdosing on the bench, the odd POV shot inside of a toilet, jumping out of a helicopter and surviving, and of course, two guys hanging out and falling in love. Awww, isn’t that sweet? While the film was entertaining, I was expecting more after hearing about Ichi, Audition, and of course, the DOA trilogy. It’s not to say anybody else will hate CoLS, just make sure you don’t watch it thinking you’ll experience something along the lines of Ichi The Killer. Just think of CoLS as True Romance Lite, minus Elvis fucking and Gary Oldman.

Loonieweed’s Rating: 6.5/10

The post City of Lost Souls, The | aka The Hazard City (2000) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Black Mask 2: City of Masks” International Theatrical Poster

Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Andy On, Teresa Maria Herrera, Scott Adkins, Tobin Bell, Sean Marquette, Michael Bailey Smith, Tracy Lords, Blacky Ko Sau Leung, Terence Yin Chi Wai, Rob Van Dam, Silvio Simac, Nicola Berwick, Oris Erhuero
Running Time: 101 min.

By Reefer

While searching for a scientist to help him deal with his own genetically-enhanced condition, Black Mask (Andy On) stumbles upon some more rejects of science that come in the form of WWF wrestlers. Sound dumb? Oh yeah. It is.

Experimented on with animal DNA, the wrestlers sport names related to the creatures they had been infected with. So there is someone so creatively named Iguana, Wolf, and Chameleon. And as imagined, they acquire many of the strengths of those animals and sporadically transform themselves at the will of filmmakers. Yawn. Plus, being the big, dumb lugs that they are, they allow their own mad scientist (Tobin Bell) to give them injections without much explanation. Then they wonder what’s happening to them.

Finally, one of them goes berserk at a wrestling match, killing and maiming the spectators only to be confronted by Black Mask. Some to the make-up and costumes involved in the creature transformations are laughably cheesy. For example, the rubber-looking face and arms of the Iguana’s getup appears so fake that it you wonder if his next venture would be to stomp on Tokyo.

But, curiously, there are also sequences filled with flawless CGI effects, leading me to believe this is Hark trying to get “creative” again. He must have gotten involved in this sequel because he was bored and wanted to desperately to mix a creature feature, martial arts, and comic book stories in some kind of genre blender just to see what would come out. What we get here is unfortunately an incoherent mess.

Look, I like films that are silly and fun too, but the product here is neither. I am not sure that Hark’s style suits the material as much as, say, Corey Yuen’s would. This might be what we would have gotten had Hark been hired to direct X-Men?

Some of the problems begin immediately from a casting standpoint. The man picked to don Jet Li’s mask, Andy On, has all the charisma of a lawn jockey. His acting style seems cue card based. I am not sure what credentials earned him this role, but it surely wasn’t his acting or his martial arts prowess, not that this film features much real kung fu anyway. I would have loved to see Chui Man Cheuk replace Li for the second time since the OUATIC series. The wrestlers. . . well, I probably don’t have to describe their performances in great detail. The word monosyllabic quickly comes to mind. Ex-porn star Traci Lords comes off (pun intended) better than the rest. While her character, Chameleon, is completely computer-generated during her fight scenes, she manages to bring life it during a few dramatic scenes.

Yuen Woo Ping handles the film’s fight choreography. Mostly wires and speed editing, not much here that is fluid or attractive to the eye, just bodies flying and bouncing off stuff, throwing weak kicks and punches. Surprising how unappealing the action is here considering Yuen’s talent and filmography.

Because of this film, I have concocted a theory: Never trust an actor with a preposition for a last name. I have no basis for this theory, mind you, but I will wait eagerly for someone to hire a Willie Of or a Bruce At or Yuen Below or Johnny To (oops… rmind).

Reefer’s Rating: 3/10

The post Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Gen-X Cops” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Jaymee Ong, Grace Yip, Eric Tsang, Toru Nakamura, Francis Ng, Daniel Wu, Moses Chan, Bradley James Allan, Vicky Chen, Jeff Kam Chun Man, Wayne Lai
Running Time: 113 min.

By James H.

“Gen-X Cops” is, without a doubt, the most American looking Hong Kong film I have ever seen. Not that that is a bad thing, it just is a fact. It is directed by Benny Chan of “Who Am I?” fame, and has style to spare. The story concerns a trio of rag-tag police rejects that are fired and re-hired to infiltrate a gang of bad guys. There is a little more to the story, but it really isn’t very important. The script throws a twist or two here and there to keep thing interesting.

The highlight of the film is not the plentiful action sequences, but the acting of one Toru Nakamura. He plays the Yakuza villain Akatura. He is, hands down, the coolest villain I have ever seen. Always dressed in black and ready to kick some ass. Nakamura plays him with this calm and composed way. Never does he give way to anything else.

The action scenes are directed with style and grace. They can give any recent American action flick a run for its money. There’s not much more one can say, except that they are exceptional. The martial arts, although not enough for my liking, was done expertly as well.

“Gen-X Cops” suffers from a somewhat cliched script. The final five minutes is, unfortunately, horribly corny and contrived, but it does leave plenty of room for a sequel.

James H’s Rating: 8.5/10

By Tequila

Although it’s by no means an excellent film, Gen-X Cops is thoroughly entertaining. It is very funny at times (Y2K giving Alien a Japanese translation) and has one of the coolest villains for a while in Akatora/Tiger, the Yakuza boss permanently in black. Francis Ng is also in this which should be recommendation enough anyway.

For what it is, a piece of entertainment, there are no better films to watch. While the plot may seem corny and the acting in some cases may be a bit poor, this is the most fun “leave your brain at the door” movie I have ever seen. It’s hard to rate in that aspect as you may not like light-hearted, fun movies and may prefer to go for the Better Tomorrow style drama and story (like I usually do). You can do a lot worse than pick this up when you have the chance though.

Tequila’s Rating: 9/10 as a slice of action-entertainment, 6/10 if you prefer a story/acting over fun

The post Gen-X Cops (1999) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“New Police Story” International Theatrical Poster

Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, Charlie Young, Daniel Wu, Dave Wong Kit, Andy On, Yu Rong Guang, Charlene Choi, Terence Yin, Philip Ng, Ken Lo, Wu Bai
Running Time: 124 min.

By Mairosu

Right movie. Wrong people.

That’s a two-sentence short summary of Jackie Chan’s comeback effort, first movie he decided to do after ditching Hollywood and playing the mandatory goofy kung-fu sidekick to the proverbial white (or, well, black) cool dude. Playing it safe, Chan decided to extend one of his most famous products – namely, the Police Story saga (saga being used very loosely here) – and so, what we here is a new sequel in an old franchise, with very much past-his-prime Chan trying to get another run at the Asian box office.

New Police Story is sort of a confusing title. New it is, but Police Story (unless you think in terms “story about policemen”) it ain’t. Totally unrelated to the first three (or four, if you account for the semi-abortive First Strike) Police Story movies, this one tells a story of a former hotshot cop Wing (take this name with a grain of salt, I saw the mandarin dub), played by Chan. Wing used to be a big time hero of sorts, but when a gang of loons robs a bank and slaughters his fellow cops just for the piss of it, he decides to take his heroism one step further and wipe ’em out himself. Alas, alas, his special taskforce gets butchered by the gang of evil nerds (I’ll explain this later), and he himself has to watch them die slowly as the criminals are toying with his men. Wing survives just barely, but is severely traumatized by the incident and takes a one-year hiatus, drowning his sorrow in drink…until a young cop (played by Nicholas Tse) revives the case and inspires Wing to finish the unfinished.

Unlike the previous PS movies – and the majority of Jackie Chan HK movies, that is – New Police Story is not the usual mix of crackerjack action and slapstick. Director Benny Chan, who already directed Jackie’s “Who Am I ?” few years back, tries to emulate the look and feel of newer Hollywood actioners via Johnny To with varying success. There is not much if any comic relief here, so the film can be called a straightforward actioner. The biggest odd one out here is definitely Chan himself, who is badly miscast as a tough, but washed up law enforcer. Probably sick of playing second fiddles in Hollywood, this is a sort of a rebound performance for Chan, who woefully overacts in film’s many emotional moments and has a torrid time looking like a believable drunkard. The absence of comedy is abridged with a lot of nods to the heroic bloodshed genre – fallen comrades, male bonding, lotsa gunfire, family endangered, usage of slo-mos – which is really odd for a Chan film. All those things summed up (add an atypical operatic, thumping soundtrack to it), this is a Chan movie in name and credits only, and one gets the feeling that this would have been an IDEAL but IDEAL comeback project for, ahem, John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. Not to take anything away from the director who certainly did a credible job, but one feels that the above given combination might have had a real score on their hands with this. Not to mention that CYF would look much, much better at the things Chan is trusted in here – including the alcohol habit and frequenting jazz bars (Hard Boiled, anyone ?).

Another gripe is the techny-ness of the script and story. Probably trying to cater to the youthful hi-tech Asian teenage crowd, scriptwriter Alan Yuen pits Chan against a gang of “dudes” who like to play video games and screw around with the police just because they can. Being children of well-to-do Hong Kongites (make your own noun for “Hong Kong resident” yourself if you don’t like the one above), they don’t have to work so they program PC games, post their exploits on the net and practice extreme sports. The scene in which they torture Chan’s comrades and Chan himself was supposed to reveal how diabolical they are – however, they just come off as snotty (Chan’s attempt of looking heartbroken and devastated is probably the only diabolical thing in that part of the film) and the whole thing feels grotesque. Daniel Wu does a credible job of breathing life into his character Joe, the ringleader of this nerd outfit, but even his performance can’t save the fact that the main villain is just a trigger happy dork. Again, I wonder if the new wave HK scriptwriters play too much GTA 3 and Max Payne – I asked myself literally the same question while watching Johnny To’s Breaking News.

Thankfully, not all went haywire here. The action scenes and stuntwork are exciting as ever, with a few really well done bits – the race down that huge building is a treat, along with the big bus scene which is a nod of sorts to Police Story 2. I would also single out the director of photography for the job on this film – after seeing Breaking News, I felt Hong Kong lost its glamour and glitz and surrendered the title of “most photogenic Asian city to be a backdrop of an action movie” to Seoul, but New Police Story represents Hong Kong at its best – shiny skyscrapers, beautiful cityscapes, great shots of modern architecture. Supporting cast doesn’t disappoint (although Charlene Choi gets progressively ingratiating, but you have to forgive her ’cause she’s kinda cute) and oh, Chan showcases his fighting skills again, and I must say those scenes look pretty good as well…ol’ Jackie was never a thespian to write home about, but at least he could stage a good fight and that ability still didn’t abandon him.

Overall, New Police Story is a return to form of sorts for Jackie Chan, albeit a limp and half-baked one. This could have been a real gem, but I guess it could have been a real stinker as well…at any rate, New Police Story is light-years ahead of, say, Tuxedo and Medallion.

Mairosu’s Rating: 6.5/10

The post New Police Story | aka Police Story 5 (2004) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.